Instagram Puts Timelapse Into The Hands Of The Masses With New Hyperlapse App

Instagram has unveiled a new app that puts high-quality time-lapse video in the hands of the masses.

The app, called Hyperlapse, makes it easy to produce professional-looking time-lapse video without the need for professional cameras, remote shutters, tripods, and a lot of free time.

This video from DigitalRevTV shows just how arduous hyperlapse can be.

The idea for the app was born out of a hackathon at Instagram’s parent-company, Facebook, where developers will work together on fun new projects. Stabilizing images is not an easy process, and it usually requires much more computing power than the average smart phone can handle. But, during the hackathon one developer had the ingenious idea of using the data from a smartphone’s motion sensor speed up this stabilization process using just a small amount of processing power – and Hyperlapse is the result.

Hyperlapse is Instagram’s second new app launch in less than a month. Last month they unveiled Bolt, an app that seems like it was made to compete with snapchat by allowing users to send messages and photos with just one touch.

It seems like Instagram is closely following Facebook’s “multi-app strategy,” which is intended to avoid burying useful tools and features in a single boated app and putting the most interesting parts of a service front and center with their own stand-alone applications.

Hyperlapse is certainly something worth featuring, and with a focus on simplicity (just a record button and a slider to control the speed of the video) you can expect to see hyperlapse video taking over the web very soon.

If you have an iPhone, you can download the app from the App Store now. Android users may have to wait a while, but Instagram has promised to support the platform in the near future.